to new proceedings pending before the Asylum Court. 23 complaints referred to old proceedings that had been assumed by the Independent Federal Asylum Senate. The Asylum Court concluded a total 144 of 717 investigative proceedings from 2011. The number of complaints went down from 717 in 2011 to 538 this year. Particularly, there were fewer complaints regarding old procee- Few complaints about old proceedings dings. In 2011, around 20% of the investigative proceedings referred to old proceedings; in 2012, this figure fell to less than 5%. Therefore, it can be concluded that the reduction of old proceedings, which – according to the intention of the legislators was supposed to have been completed by the end of 2010 – has been largely successful. The Asylum Court has described the number of still pending old proceedings as “a few hundred”. However, there are still 19 investigative proceedings from 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 that have not been concluded, in other words, they have been pending for five to eight years (!). There were few changes with regard to complaints about new proceedings. Some of these proceedings have been pending since the Asylum Court was established (1 July 2008). In most of the investigated complaints, the Asylum Court has not taken any steps – during a period of up to four and a half years. 21 complaints referred to proceedings that had been pending since 2008, 40 to proceedings pending since 2009, 131 to proceedings pending since 2010, 204 to proceedings pending since 2011 and 90 to proceedings pending since 2012. Many of the complaints had been filed by Afghan citizens. The AOB can inform numerous asylum seekers only that the Asylum Court could not provide an estimate regarding the conclusion Many delays in new proceedings of the proceedings. Nevertheless, after some time has passed, they again contact the AOB and again request that an enquiry be made. In numerous cases from 2011, the AOB contacted the Asylum Court ex-officio. In 186 investigative proceedings from 2011 and 2012, the Asylum Court was not able to report on any judicial proceedings or the conclusion of a proceeding. The AOB contacted the Asylum Court for the first time in November 2010 regarding a proceeding that had been pending since July 2009. It held out the vague prospect of a decision in late 2011/early 2012. According to their estimate at the time, all complaint proceedings should be decided upon on the average within the statutory deadlines by this point in time. In December 2011, the AOB enquired on the progress of the proceedings. The Asylum Court only pointed out the general backlog. In the proceeding, the Asylum Court had not taken 89